A group of motherboard enthusiasts working for GIGABYTE, sharing their insider knowledge and general ramblings of the motherboard business, the tech industry, latest technologies and trends, and other random odds and ends.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Multiple 10-12 year old systems entered into the GIGABYTE Hidden Gems competition–gives new meaning to ‘Ultra Durable’!

Just cruising through the Hidden Gems competition entries this morning I came across a number of really old PCs that are still in use today. Have a look at this old 12 year old PC (well, in its 12th year) that is still running the original GIGABYTE GA-6VX7-4X motherboard, and is being used to play old dos games or as a test bed. It apparently used to be a fileserver and CD/DVD sharer. Today it can be found on page 13 of the ‘Detailed List’ in the ‘Competition Voting’ section:

Here is another dual socket server board from the turn of the century, this time the GA-6VXDC7, that is still running today. It can be found on page 21 of the ‘Detailed List’:

Not to mention this GA-5AA motherboard based system that is also still being used to play older games. The first BIOS for this model was released in January 2000, so it is a real grand daddy in this competition. It can be found on page 22 of the ‘Detailed List’:

By the way, if you’re wondering how to estimate the age of a motherboard we suggest you look at the date of the first BIOS release. This can be found in the downloads section of the motherboard home page. Here’s a screenshot of the BIOS download section for Richard de Kock’s system above:

Keep in mind that the competition is not only about the oldest system; there are also prizes for the system that gets the most votes and the system that is judged to be most worthy of an upgrade. Hope you enjoy this little trip down memory lane, and please cast your vote for the system that impresses you most.